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    Why Canadians Can’t Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)



    Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/not-just-bikes-why-canadians-can-t-bike-in-the-winter-but-finnish-people-can

    When talking about bicycle infrastructure in Canada, the number one excuse I hear is “winter.” Many Canadians see the cold and snow as a fundamental barrier to year round cycling. But one city, Oulu in Finland, with winter weather worse than most Canadian cities, shows that winter cycling has nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with safe cycling infrastructure.

    Want to learn more about winter cycling? Every February, the Winter Cycling Federation holds a Winter Cycling Congress where experts and advocates get together and talk about best practices in cycling infrastructure and maintenance. More information is here at https://wintercycling.org/

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    NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel):
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9v57F4xz46KaDsvWfCv8yw

    —
    This video would not have been possible without contributions from:
    * Pekka Tahkola: https://twitter.com/pekkatahkola
    * Anders Swanson: https://twitter.com/SwansonAnders
    * CycleYYZ: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHinhHYjd7k_K7d2lEmC73w
    * Dave Edwards: https://twitter.com/DaveLikesBikes
    * Joonas Olli: https://twitter.com/O_Joonas
    * Vélo d’hiver – Montréal: https://www.facebook.com/groups/velodhiver/about
    * My Brother
    * Wimpy snowflake Canadian who can’t handle a little bit of cold
    —

    Winter cycling study (in Finnish):
    TALVIPYÖRÄILYLAAJUUSMOTIIVIT JA ESTEETTERVEYSVAIKUTUKSET
    https://docplayer.fi/7216725-Talvipyoraily-laajuus-motiivit-ja-esteet-terveysvaikutukset.html

    Map of bicycle underpasses in Oulu and the surrounding area:
    https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/viewer?mid=1rMd5XedFvMJFgbqF9ZdAYnICBG8&ll=65.00256878332665%2C25.457461452295682&z=12

    BLUEGRYB | Rotating Icebreaker
    GRYB (YouTube/CC BY)

    https://www.bixi.com/en/where-do-all-the-bixi-go-in-the-winter

    How to Keep Cyclists Riding Even in the Frigid Snowy Winter
    The two key lessons learned by Northern European cities.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/how-to-keep-cyclists-riding-even-in-the-snowy-winter

    Ice cycles: the northerly world cities leading the winter bicycle revolution
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/feb/12/ice-cycles-northerly-world-cities-winter-bicycle-revolution

    Music: “My Touque’s Too Tight” by Drool Puddy

    —

    Chapters:

    0:00 Intro
    0:05 You can’t cycle in the winter
    0:36 Introduction to Oulu
    1:29 It’s not the cold
    2:21 First: safe cycle paths
    4:20 Second: proper winter maintenance
    6:08 Lessons from Oulu
    6:39 My experiences with winter cycling
    7:37 Gushing over how awesome Oulu is
    8:00 It’s not as cold as you think
    9:40 Progress in Canada
    10:48 Canadian excuses
    11:29 Winter Cycling Congress
    11:59 Conclusion
    12:24 Patreon shout-out
    12:37 Drool Puddy music video

    Related

    View 37 Comments

    37 Comments

    1. Sam The Mighty on

      In fact if you want the best winter cycling experience you'll want a studded rear tire and winter chains on that front tire.
      You always want more grip to your front tire than rear when cycling.
      If done this way winter cycling is very safe indeed (As long as you don't need to cycle on the roads with cars of course).
      You can use the studded tire in front and regular tire at rear from late autumn till the heavier snowing start and then again from early spring where there still might be icy surfaces on your routes but most of the surfaces are already free from ice and snow.

      PS. I like your videos and thought to share another nice thing about Finnish neighborhoods. In general all cities and towns have easier to cycle in the suburbs than it is at downtown like it seems to be the case everywhere else.

    10. Patrick Trakzel on

      You say the Dutch and Germans call gloves handshoes. Why you show a French and Belgian flag? Plain stupid. You live/lived for years in Amsterdam for years and still don't know the Dutch flag?

    11. Andrew Andrew on

      Canadians can and do and always have cycled in the snow! I live in Toronto and have been out there in the winter (along with many others for years)

    14. Bios Update on

      Here in my city, no one actually uses the bike lanes, because they are about an inch thick at the best, and we all just bike on the sidewalk, and no one minds because it’s rare to see people using the side walk other than bikers. Whenever I see you not mention just biking on the side walk I get confused, because most of these problems are negated if you do as they always plow the side walks. But I have to remember this solution only applies to a handful of places🤣

    15. Steven Rowley on

      I commuted by bike in NJ winters for many years, and your criticisms of infrastructure are well aimed. Plotting routes using residential streets really helped, but it wasn't a true substitute to having good bike infrastructure.

      One other clothing consideration is foot covering. I found that my feet wouldn't get cold quickly, but after about 10 km, they'd be very cold if using normal footwear in subfreezing temperatures. A pair of insulated shoes really helped this. Because the temperatures here can vary by as much as 15C from morning to afternoon, I also found that wearing layers really helped.

    17. Jax Abe on

      Do you think the Canadian road engineers, or government officials, would learn something from your videos, or would become even more resistant in making changes because you called them stupid, although they might have been?

    18. Écopolis on

      You are so right. Biking in winter is so great and your beautyful images almost made me cry because i remember the feeling. Canada has many climate zones. I am from Montreal where the temperature is under zero for almost 4 months every year and the streets very dirty during this period. The cycling paths not cleaned. I biked a hole winter mayy years ago. It is an extreme sport. Because of the cold you need disk brakes to be installed on your wheels because rubber brakes do not work at minus 20. On hard snow with a mountain bike it is ok. But once I slided on black ice covered with melting water at 10 pm ont Mont Royal (which is very beautyful covered with snow under moonlight winter night but that night You are so right. Biking in winter is so great and your beautyful images almost made me cry because i remember the feeling. Canada has many climate zones. I am from Montreal where the temperature is under zero for almost 4 months every year and the streets very dirty during this period. The cycling paths not cleaned. I biked a hole winter mayy years ago. It is an extreme sport. Because of the cold you need disk brakes to be installed on your wheels because rubber brakes do not work at minus 20. On hard snow with a mountain bike it is ok. But once I slided on black ice covered with melting water at 10 pm ont Mont Royal (which is very beautyful covered with snow under moonlight winter night but that night I slided on black ice and felt, sliding in the opposite direction than my bike for a distance of 80 feet. My hip hurted me for 2 years. Ice is as hard as iron when you fall. Out of the paths it is almost impossible because in the fields there is often an accumulation of one meter of snow. Bu this snow is made of many layers of different nature of snow (crusty, icy, fluffy or flaky sometime hard sometime smooth. In canadian cities streets like Montreal, problem is the presence of ice surfaces and melting surfaces (slush) which is a high risk of fall and because the omni presence of cars at any intersections makes it highly risky. You are totalle right that the design and maintenance of cycling path is the main reason.

    19. Luc Therriault on

      You should travel outside of your province, Ontario, during the winter, now and then. To see for example, Montréal which has a fully functioning winter bicycle network. I've done winter Cyclotourisme around Montréal, including camping and visiting various cities along the way, including Saint-Eustache, Rosemère, Terrebonne, Charlemagne (birthplace of the Dion family). Also, I was able last winter to traverser both shores of Montréal through both bridges, Champlain to Jacques Cartier, 55 km of only bike paths, throughout various neighborhoods in the middle of winter (after a big snow storm) was a sign that Montréal was doing something right. This is thanks to Maire LaPlante's vision of commuter-centric city. Major cycloroutes have been implemented everywhere. Now if they can just do the same for our roads!?!?

    20. Richard Rose on

      What I think is needed in Canada, is studded tires. I’ve seen cyclists in Prince George, in British Columbia, Canada…get to a stop sign and promptly have the wheels slide out from under the cyclists.

    22. CC on

      Me, watching your videos where you point out the fact that painted bike lane "gutters" are the shitty consolation prize of bicycle infrastructure:

      "Wait, you guys have painted bicycle lanes?"

      I live in the rural 'Murican Wild West™️ (Wyoming) where dudes who drive unnecessary big-ass pickup trucks are CONVINCED that sharing a street with a cyclist WILL shrink their reproductive organs.

    23. Memes and Gaming on

      For my town you can cycle in the winter bc it doesn't snow anymore. Damm global warming took it. Maybe you'll see 2mm of snow in a day of March or April, but unless you go to mountain areas, you got no snow.

    25. Keena Feier on

      This just makes me wistfully sigh…. I have a fat-bike to bike in winter but it's never to go anywhere since that'd be a 50km round trip! But it's great for exercise for me and my dog 🙂

    27. BigBadWolf on

      09:04 Oh boy … so first, the flag on the left is French but gloves in french are called "gants". 'Handschoenen' is Dutch. Next. the flag on the right is Belgium, not Germany, but "Handschuhe" is indeed German.

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